To me this is the essence of kiteboarding. Massive airtime off wave lips. Throw some tricks and loops for good measure.If they also added style points for wave riding on the way in then it would cover all aspects of the sport (except course racing).

PS 9m,10m kites in 35 knots..... crazy bastardo's..... But it also proves those weirdos who say a smaller kite gives you bigger airtime wrong. These guys are riding the largest kite they can hold down for the wind conditions!

The world’s kiteboarding elite and spectators alike gathered at Cape Town’s Big Bay where Kevin Langeree kited his heart out to take the title of Red Bull King of the Air 2014.

CK_Winner Kevin Langeree in action in the final.jpg

CAPE TOWN (South Africa) – For the second year in a row Cape Town’s Big Bay played host to 24 of the world’s best kiteboarders as they went head-to-head in a unique ‘flag out’ competition format. It all came down to the final in which Dutchman Kevin Langeree managed to edge out his compatriots Ruben Lenten (second) and Steven Akkersdijk (third) to become Red Bull King of the Air 2014 champion in front of a 12 000-strong crowd. “The conditions picked up during the day and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better! The final was definitely tough and everyone of us was so close to winning. I definitely had my best heat of the day in the final. This is the third Red Bull King of the Air I’ve competed in and was a title I that I didn’t have yet so I was hungry for it. I’m so stoked!”

Judged on height, creativity and style, the participants’ manoeuvres were judged by Alex Vliege (NED), William Bogaards (NED), Greg Thijsse (RSA), Arkadiusz Jerzelkowski (POL), Reinier Korstanje (NED), Ralf Bachsuster (GER) who had their work cut out for them.

An innovative tool available to the judges was Xensr technology. The application measures the height, speed, airtime, gravity loading, location and the 3D motion of athlete with all data captured at 400 times a second and is accurate to within 3mm, as soon as they land a jump. All jump data is immediately relayed to judges and live stream. Frenchman Tom Herbert recorded the highest jump of the day – a lofty 25.04m.

Head judge Alex Vliege was pleased about how the event played out in the end: “What an epic day! We had the best riders in the world here today with Cape Town and mother nature delivering great conditions. We finally got what we were waiting for. Kevin was completely deserving of the title – he did the same moves as the others plus more, with variation and went higher than the others.“

Blouberg local Andries Fourie was the highest placed South African in 4th place and landed the second highest jump of the day of 23.37m.